Flores Discusses White House Budget Talks

Less than 24 hours after meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, Congressman Bill Flores said there is common ground being found in the battle over the budget, although a rift still must be overcome.

The representative of Texas' 17th District joined Brazos Valley This Morning Thursday, a day after he joined House Republicans in talks with President Obama.

"The President does agree with us that we have to make significant reforms in the fiscal operations of the federal government," Flores said. "He agreed we need to make cuts not only in the short term, but also in the intermediate and longer term. The secondary agreement was that everything is on the table. We need to look at cuts to discretionary spending, which represents about a third of what we spend annually, but also entitlement spending -- autopilot spending, as I call it. -- which is about 65 percent of the budget."

Where President Obama and Republicans disagreed is, Flores says, is on how to raise revenues, a debate the congressman says will continue to play out.

"You've got the troops rallying in both camps, and it's hard to see where the center of gravity is at this point," he said of the discussions, which are taking place between Senate Democrats and House Republicans, along with Vice President Joe Biden on behalf of President Obama.

Flores described the discussions between the two sides as "open and frank", but couldn't say when the discussion will lead to a solution.

"Our goal is to get this done before the end of July, before the August recess, but it's really hard to say where it's going to come from," Flores said. "If the President and (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid continue to focus on tax increases to balance the budget. We're going to have a really long, hard slog to get it done."

If the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2, the United States could default on its loans and cause trauma in the global market. Republicans vowed Wednesday to vote in favor of a raising of the ceiling if Democrats agree to trillions in cuts.

Comments may be monitored for inappropriate content, but the station is under no legal obligation to do so.
If you believe a comment violates the above rules, please use the Flagging Tool to alert a Moderator.
Flagging does not guarantee removal.

Multiple violations may result in account suspension.
Decisions to suspend or unsuspend accounts are made by Station Moderators.
Questions may be sent to comments@kbtx.com.
Please provide detailed information.

Online Public Information File

Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or fccinfo@fcc.gov.

Steve Fullhart anchors First News at Four and News 3 at Five weekdays, and serves as KBTX's managing editor. He joined the Brazos Valley’s news leader in May 2004 and has anchored, reported for and produced every newscast at KBTX over his time at the station.